Top 14: Toulon put Steffon Armitage woes to one side to beat Bayonne 24-17

Bryan Habana scores for Toulon

Toulon struggled to a 24-17 win over Bayonne at Stade Mayol to move temporarily to the top of the Top 14 table.

The defending champions were missing a host of players who are away on Six Nations and had to deal with more Steffon Armitage examination – this time for what he has done off the field rather than on it.

Armitage learnt on Thursday that he will have to appear in court on February 10 over an incident last month in a Toulon restaurant where the team had spent an evening drinking after their side's 23-8 victory over Leicester in the European Champions Cup.

Armitage, capped five times by England, was in the initial squad to play Bayonne but was left out of the starting team and replacements at Stade Mayol.

Bryan Habana opened the scoring for Toulon, latching on to a perfectly-weighted Maxime Mermoz grubber into an unmanned corner.

But Bayonne, against the flow of play, hit straight back through Argentine full-back Martin Bustos-Moyano, who beat scrum-half Eric Escande to a neat chip by Santiago Fernandez for a try under the posts which he also converted.

Juan Martin Hernandez, starting at fly-half in the absence of both Australian Matt Giteau, who underwent a groin operation on Tuesday and will be out for two months, and Frederic Michalak, still to make his comeback from a shoulder injury, handed the advantage back to Toulon with a penalty.

Marvin O'Connor was on hand to hold up Rudi Wulf over the line with a fine tackle, but Bayonne's line had strayed offside and Hernandez added his second penalty.

Things got worse for the visitors when prop Gert Muller was sin-binned for a ruck infringement and Hernandez kicked his third penalty for a 14-7 lead at half-time.

Georgian prop Levan Chilachaya opened the scoring for Toulon in the second period, muscling over from short range with Hernandez converting.

But once again Bayonne responded, the impressive Fernandez chipping the home rush defence for centre Matthieu Ugalde to gather and cross for a simple try converted by Bustos-Moyano.

Bustos-Moyano then grabbed a 72nd minute penalty for a bonus point as Habana was denied a late try after compatriot Juan Smith's pass was correctly ruled forward.